This invention relates generally to the field of painting, and in particular to the use of patterns to guide a painter in the painting process.
When decorating a room, a variety of materials are available to assist the decorator. For example, one common way to decorate a room is with the use of wall paper. Although useful in many applications, some prefer not to use wall paper because of the difficulty in applying the wall paper, and more importantly, because of the difficulty in removing the wall paper when redecorating.
One alternative to wall paper is the use of paint, particularly because of the ease in redecorating by simply repainting. However, use of paint when decorating can be especially challenging if it is desired to paint a scene or a pattern. For example, one popular way to decorate a wall is to paint a colorful scene on the wall, such as a landscape scene. However, when attempting to paint such a scene on a wall, the decorator must first design the appropriate scene, and then paint the scene with appropriate sizes, proportions and colors.
To accomplish such a task, a professional artist may be commissioned for the project. However, this can be expensive and considerable time and effort may be expended in locating the appropriate artist. One alternative to this approach has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,400, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, and relies on the use of a pattern which is projected onto a wall using a projector. The decorator then paints the wall according to the projected pattern. Such a process is undesirable in that it requires the use of an expensive projector and can require the room to be darkened in order to see the pattern, thereby making it difficult to see when painting. Moreover, if the decorator steps in front of the projector, the image projected by the projector will be blocked. Further, if the projector is moved, the projected image will also move. Use of such a projector is also undersireable in that the size of the projected pattern is dependent on the distance of the projector from the wall. If the room is not large enough, the appropriately sized pattern cannot be produced. Also, the projector may tend to distort the pattern as it is projected onto the wall.
Hence, it would be desirable to provide a more convenient and effective way to allow a desired area to be decorated with the use of paint. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a way to paint various scenes or murals onto a surface with minimal or no painting experience and with minimal preparation time and tools. It would be further desirable if the invention provided a kit to assist in painting a wide variety of scenes or murals onto a painting surface.